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Cynthia Clawson

American musician

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 13, 2026
Entity authorityQ5200029
Source-derived summary

Cynthia Clawson (born October 11, 1948, in Houston, Texas) is a Grammy Award-winning American gospel singer. She has been called "The most awesome voice in gospel music" by Billboard Magazine, and has received five Dove Awards, 15 Dove Award nominations, and a Grammy for her work.

Biographical information

Clawson is the daughter of Reverend and Mrs. Tom Clawson. She was 3 years old when her father asked her to sing in the small church of which he was the minister. From that time, she sang in local neighborhood churches and in Robert Schuller's Hour of Power. She has a sister, Patti Clawson, a pianist who sometimes accompanies her in concerts.

Clawson graduated from Milby High School in Houston, and is a 1970 graduate of Howard Payne University with a major in vocal performance and a minor in piano. She won the Arthur Godfrey Talent Show her senior year in college.

Career

Television

Clawson was spotted by a CBS television producer who signed her to headline a summer 1971 replacement for The Carol Burnett Show called the CBS Newcomers.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Cynthia Clawson” as american musician. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Cynthia, Clawson and American.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1948, 1970, 1971—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1948-10-11. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Cynthia, Clawson and American providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Cynthia Clawson”, the useful work is to connect “american musician” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5200029. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1948, 1970 and 1971.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Cynthia Clawson”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Cynthia Clawson primary sources, Cynthia Clawson archive and Cynthia research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Cynthia Clawson”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Cynthia Clawson” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.